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PNS Daily Newscast - March 21, 2019

The nation’s acting Defense Secretary is under investigation for promoting Boeing, his former employer. Also on the Thursday rundown: The Trump administration’s spending blueprint being called a “bully budget.” Plus, a call for the feds to protect consumers from abusive lenders.

Stephanie Winkler, president of the Kentucky Teachers Association, says educators simply are not being paid adequately.

"It's a fact that I wish were not true, but if you go to any school building in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, you'll find educators that work an outside job or perhaps even several jobs to make ends meet,” she points out. “This is an unfortunate reality in public education today."

Teachers in Kentucky earn on average $53,000 annually, according to the National Education Association. That's just slightly higher than in 2000.

Winkler maintains school funding problems, coupled with a lack of respect for the profession, results in teachers not being properly compensated for their education and experience.

Winkler says teachers often devote their own time and money to ensure students are ready to learn, which includes purchasing supplies and sometimes food.

"The lack of education funding, it usually falls back on the teachers to make up for that loss in funding because we don't want our students to go without,” she states. “So it's just unfortunate that it has to come to that."

Winkler adds that the report findings underscore what society values.

"Education above all else makes every other occupation possible,” she points out. “So one might assume that education at its foundation would be the highest priority for our nation, but reality tells us a different story. So this must and can change if we want to make it so."